Carlo Ancelotti has urged his Everton players to remain focused and put an end to their disappointing home form when injury-plagued Southampton visit Goodison Park on Monday.
Everton have lost three successive Premier League games on home soil - to Newcastle United, Fulham and Manchester City - and have gone five without a victory there.
The Toffees still find themselves in top-four contention thanks to their impressive away form, most recently beating Merseyside rivals Liverpool 2-0 last weekend, but Ancelotti accepts that a big improvement is required at Goodison.
"In away games we are more focused defensively," said Ancelotti, who has never lost four consecutive home league games in his managerial career.
"At home, maybe we are thinking that the games are easier and we are not able to keep the concentration that we had away.
"When you are able to open the scoring it is important, not only for us. Of course starting fast [against Southampton] will be really important - but as I said we have to be more focused when we are at home."
Southampton picked up a famous victory of their own against reigning champions Liverpool on January 4, but since then they have taken one point from a possible 24.
The Saints' injury issues deepened on Friday as it was confirmed Oriol Romeu will miss the rest of the season with an ankle injury, the midfielder joining Kyle Walker-Peters, Ibrahima Diallo, Theo Walcott, Michael Obafemi, Will Smallbone and Takumi Minamino on the sidelines.
Boss Ralph Hasenhuttl, whose side went down 3-0 to Leeds United in midweek, said: "We have struggled more since Tuesday with injuries than getting over the result and now we must try to find a group for Monday.
"Oriol, that hurts massively. I just don't know who plays on the six at the weekend. It is up to the young players to play and stepping in as a young player is not the best right now.
"The situation we are in, we need to look at every option because there are not a lot."
KEY PLAYERS
Everton - Gylfi Sigurdsson
Sigurdsson scored from the penalty spot at Anfield last weekend and has now been involved in six Premier League goals in 23 appearances this term - four goals and two assists - which is one more than in 35 matches last season.
The Iceland international will be looking to build on that tally against Southampton, whom he has scored six times against in the top flight - only Chelsea, with six goals, has he netted against more often.
Southampton - Alexandre Jankewitz
Romeu's absence could pave the way for Jankewitz to feature for the first time since being red carded two minutes into his Premier League debut against Manchester United - a game Southampton went on to lose by a record-equalling 9-0 margin.
The Switzerland Under-21s international will need to keep his head on what could be a tough afternoon for the visitors' threadbare squad.
KEY OPTA FACTS
- Everton are unbeaten in their last 15 home Premier League games against Southampton (W10 D5) since losing 2-0 under Howard Kendall in the 1997-98 campaign.
- Among Premier League fixtures played at least 25 times, only Everton v Leeds United (11.5 per cent) has a lower away win percentage than Everton v Southampton (11.6 per cent), with the away side winning just five of the 43 meetings between the sides in the competition.
- Following their 2-0 victory against Everton back in October, Southampton are looking to secure their first league double over the Toffees since 1997-98.
- Southampton have won their last two Premier League Monday games, winning 2-1 at Brighton and 1-0 against Liverpool this season. They last won three consecutive top-flight Monday games in April 1992, with the second game in that run being a 1-0 victory against Liverpool.
- No side has scored more headed goals in the Premier League than Everton this season (10), with Dominic Calvert-Lewin netting more with his head than any other player this term (5).
Author
Hi, Its me Hafeez. A webdesigner, blogspot developer and UI/UX Designer. I am a certified Themeforest top Author and Front-End Developer. I'am business speaker, marketer, Blogger and Javascript Programmer.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment